Ancient Oghuz-Oghur Ethno-Linguo-Cultural Relations

Abstract

The authors of the article raise a topical issue for modern philology on the importance of creating an
interdisciplinary branch of social and humanitarian research “diachronic ethnolinguoculturological comparative studies” as a methodological basis for special complex scientific and theoretical discipline. That is the first time the authors present key issues in the history of relationship between two main branches of the Proto-Turkic ethno-linguo- cultural continuum, conventionally designated as Oghuz and Oghur, and preliminary linguistic examination of the ethnonym “Turk” is also carried out for the first time to identify its true subject-conceptual content. At the same time, the authors point to the fact that even modern researchers are trying to distance themselves from the issue of ethno- linguistic attribution of human communities hiding behind early medieval terms Turks, Tyurks, Tyuzdzyue, Tyurkyuts, etc.
At present, professionally trained experts are well aware of the ethnonymic term “Turk” going back to the Eastern Iranian (Sogdian) ethnonym turk (pl. turkut / türküt, hence the Chinese tūjué / tyuzdzyue) “Turan inhabitants”. Tyuzdzyue were identified with the ancient Turks in Chinese historical sources from the very beginning, or rather with the Turkic-speaking Oghuzes, Uighurs and other tribes. It led to further erroneous constructions in poorly documented early stage of the ethnolinguocultural history of Central Asia. Based on information from Chinese dynastic chronicles, the authors point out that in the middle of the 5 th Century AD in the south-west of Circumgobi historical and cultural province, Sogdian merchants, the Tyuzdzyue of Chinese historical sources, who settled on the main trade routes of the Great Silk Road, are gaining more and more political weight.
Key words: comparative studies, Turks, Oghuzes, Oghurs, Turkic paleohistory, ethnolinguoculturology.